1988–1994 Phillips was born in
Dolgellau, and made his first televised darts appearance at the
1988 British Professional Championship reaching the last 16. In
1991, he appeared at his first World Championship losing in the first round to the defending champion
Phil Taylor. In
1992 he defeated the Dutchman
Bert Vlaardingerbroek 3–0 in the first round and knocked out five-time world champion
Eric Bristow 3–2 in the second round to reach the quarter-final where he was defeated again by Taylor, who went on to clinch his second World title. He also played in
1993 and
1994, reaching the second round in both tournaments, losing both times to
Bobby George. Phillips remained in the
British Darts Organisation's events during the
split in darts between 1993 and 1994 – but the first year after the split proved to be his last appearance at the
Lakeside World Championship for nine years.
1994–2006 Although he failed to qualify for the World Championships for several years, he picked up two WDF Europe Cup pairs titles, in 1994 with
Eric Burden and 1998 with
Sean Palfrey – plus a WDF World Cup pairs title also with Palfrey in 1997. He had limited singles success for over a decade, with only three semi-final appearances at the Isle of Man Open (1996, 1997 and 2000) He returned for the
2003 BDO World Darts Championship, but lost in the first round to
John Walton and would then miss out on qualification for the event for the next three years, leaving him with just the one appearance at the Lakeside in 13 years.
2007–2011 In
2007, Phillips returned to the Lakeside but lost again in the first round, this time to Scotland's
Paul Hanvidge. His form began to improve during 2007 with a tournament win at the Turunç Open in Turkey, and semi-final appearances at the Welsh Classic and Northern Ireland Open. Towards the end of 2007 he was on the receiving end of a defeat and a nine-dart finish by
John Walton in their last 16 match at the
2007 Winmau World Masters. At the
2008 BDO World Championship, Phillips beat
Shaun Greatbatch in the last 32 but lost in the second round to reigning champion
Martin Adams. Another first round exit followed in the
2009 BDO World Championship, losing 3–1 to
Ross Montgomery, but he picked up the 2009 Border Classic title and reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Open and Welsh Classic. In the
2010 BDO World Championship, Phillips went on to reach the semi-finals for the first time in his career beating seventh seed
Dave Prins 3–0 in the first round, qualifier Paul Carter 4–2 in the second round and second seed
Scott Waites in the quarter-finals. Phillips had gone into a 4–0 lead before Waites brought the scores level at 4–4, before Phillips showed better consistency in the final set to reach the last four where he was beaten 6–4 by Martin Adams. In October 2010 he won the biggest title of his career so far by winning the
WDF Europe Cup beating 2010 World Champion
Martin Adams on the way to the final where he beat
Willy van de Wiel 7–3. Two weeks later, he won seven matches to reach the semi-finals of the
Winmau World Masters for the first time before losing to
Stuart Kellett. In November 2010, Phillips made his first appearance at the
Grand Slam of Darts having qualified through his runs to the semi-finals at the Lakeside. In the group stages, he beat
Adrian Lewis (who went on to become
PDC World Champion just two months later) 5–2 in legs. Phillips did not qualify from the group stages after losing 1–5 to
Scott Waites and 4–5 to
Co Stompé. He made the semi-finals for the second year running at the
2011 BDO World Championship, beating
Mark Barilli 3–0,
Joey ten Berge 4–3 and
Gary Robson 5–4, then lost a repeat of the previous year's semi-final match with Martin Adams 4–6. He has appeared at 2011 Grand Slam of darts and he has had a better year then in 2010. He qualified from his group despite losing to
Adrian Lewis 5–4 he claimed victories over Dutchman
Co Stompé and
Vincent van der Voort both 5–2, To set up a last 16 clash with fellow countryman and former
World Champion Mark Webster who he lost 10–8 having led 3–0 and 8–5.
2014: Masters Champion After losing as an unseeded player to
Wesley Harms in the first round of the World Championship in 2012, Phillips failed to qualify for Lakeside in either 2013 or 2014. However, he bounced back spectacularly by regaining his place in the world's top 8, before winning the first major TV title in his 26-year career at the
Winmau World Masters. After reaching the semi-finals without dropping a set, Phillips survived a match dart in a deciding leg victory over
Glen Durrant before beating
Jamie Hughes 7–3 in the final. Phillips would become the BDO world number one in November that year. However, seeded fifth at the 2015 BDO World Championship, Phillips was defeated 3–0 by
Madars Razma in the first round. At the 2015 Winmau World Masters, Phillips' title defence was ended at the quarter-final stage by
Glen Durrant, who avenged his semi final loss to Phillips from the previous year.
2019 As of 16 November 2019, Phillips has not participated in any darts tournament. ==World Championship results==